A woman who identified herself as a PETA member and was dressed as a giant chicken hit Ronald McDonald with a vegan custard pie at the “grand” opening of the new McDonald’s in the Hancock Village Shopping Center in Midlothian on Saturday morning.

Despite the clown’s cry of “No pie!” the plucky protester managed to cream the corporate mascot with the confection before flying the coop, leaving Ronald to change his costume. The protest is part of PETA’s campaign to convince McDonald’s to make reasonable, humane, and basic improvements in the way chickens are killed for its restaurants.

PETA wants McDonald’s to require its suppliers to phase in a less cruel slaughter method called “controlled-atmosphere killing” (CAK), which eliminates some of the worst abuses that birds suffer. McDonald’s suppliers already use CAK in Europe.  In 2005, McDonald’s produced a report concurring that CAK offers significant animal welfare benefits over the conventional slaughter method, but the company has not required any of its U.S. suppliers to switch to it.

“McDonald’s can stop a great deal of cruelty simply by requiring its suppliers to make an animal welfare improvement that its own studies support,” says PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman. “While McDonald’s drags its feet, chickens continue to suffer needlessly.”

photo courtesy of PETA

For more information, visit PETA’s Web site McCruelty.com.